'Mrs C: Cooking's different, aye. Ye'd no electricity, ye'd no water. Ye'd cart it all in an -

Mr C: Carry it out.

Mrs C: Carry it out. It was all quite - a lot o hard work.

Interviewer: So, you wouldn't necessarily have an inside toilet then?

Mrs C: No, no. It was an outside toilet we had.

Interviewer: Right.

Mrs C: Mm-hmm. An then it's at least twen- twenty-six years since we got the water.

Mr C: After that.

Interviewer: So, so, the water?

Mr C: The mains.

Interviewer: Oh, the mains.

Mrs C: Twenty-six years ago we did the house here.

Interviewer: Yes.

Mrs C: We put the bathroom in it, an the water, an all then. We got hot water an everythin then. It's been twenty-six years since we had that.

Interviewer: What did you use yourself from the croft for cooking and for feeding the family?

Mrs C: Well, we had potatoes an we had our turnips an our vegetables.

Interviewer: Yes.

Mrs C: We all had vegetables all the time. An then when we'd a cow we'd milk the cow an we'd our butter an our cheese an our...

Mr C: Poultry.

Mrs C: ...all that. Mm-hmm. Ah mean it was harder times then, you had to.

Intereviewer: What sort of cheese did you make? Did you make the one sort, the local - ?

Mrs C: We used to have the crow- we used to make the crowdie, an then I used to make the cheesies - ye know, ye put in a press?

Interviewer: Yes.

Mrs C: Mm-hmm. Leave it in so long an then put it out to dry.

Interviewer: Yes.

Mrs C: We used to use it. Mm-hmm. Then we had our - We'd our salt herring and we used to kill our pig an have salt pork and that - ye see we'd no freezers at that - at was before we had any freezers or anything like that - it was all salt stuff, ye know?

Interviewer: Did you have a smokehouse?

Mrs C: No.

Interviewer: You never smoked bacon?

Mrs C: No. Naw.

Interviewer: You pickled?

Mrs C: But we used til cure our bacon. Used to put it into a - what they call it?

Mr C: A brime [brine].

Mrs C: A brime. We used to make up a brime wi different pickles - and, we used to -

Mr C: Brown sugar an cloves

Mrs C: Brown sugar we got. We'd a recipe for that.

Interviewer: Saltpetre?

Mrs C: Yes.

Mr C: That's correct.

Mrs C: Uh-huh. An we used to be using that an then we'd leave it in there so long an get out an hang it up - roll it an hang it up - an it was really very, very nice. Ye'd like it now; it'd be lovely now to have.

Interviewer: Well I've tasted it and it's - That's why I was saying, ye know, I'd like to have a few acres an have a pig and a c-

Mrs C: Yeh.

Interviewer: Because -

Mrs C: It was lovely then, ye know?

Interviewer: Yes.

Mrs C: An they shout now that salt is no good for ye. The salt's off long ago.

Mr C: Ye lost more sweat then; the salt didn't affect ye.

Interviewer: I think if you're working hard, you can eat anything.

Mr C: Aw, ye can eat anything. Yes, ye get rid o the salt.

Interviewer: Did you - You obviously did all your own baking?

Mrs C: All baking. Well, I still do all my own baking.

Interviewer: Yes. What did you make, then?

Mrs C: Well, scones an oat-, well, his mother used to make a lot of oatcakes - I used to make oatcakes but now it seems we, we don't make them; we buy them. An scones an pancakes an all that sort o thing.